We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the weirdest and most brain-bending un-Shooped image I’ve seen in ages… and that in a year that’s been pretty strong on brain-bending images.

The image is copyright Felix Kaestle/Associated Press, and can be found on this Wall Street Journal photoblog page; the caption says it’s “part of the stage setting for the opera ‘Andre Chenier’ by Italian composer Umberto Giordano, which will premiere [at Lake Constance near Bregenz, Austria] in July.” [Found via This Isn’t Happiness]

Personally, I suspect it’s actually an artefact left behind by one of the more playful interventionist splinters of The Culture. WE MAY NEVER KNOW FOR SURE.